Cutting Through the Cortex
by Narutario
Summary: A boy, lonely and hated, with a monstrous power not his own. A girl, orphaned and grief-stricken, who holds a storm of battle in her heart. The meeting of these two youths is unprecidented, but will be unto the world like a breath of fresh air.


Hey everybody, this is my prologue for a story that I'm testing out. This is pretty much gonna be my first 'real' story, so we'll see if I'm up to the task.

**Warning: If you haven't seen Air Master and are reading this, you'll still be fine, but it really won't be as good. Do yourself a favor, and check it out before reading this. Seriously, it's good stuff.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Air Master.

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Cutting Through the Cortex Prologue: The Winds of Change

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~~~Uzugakure, about one year before the Kyuubi attack.~~~

_A flash of light, a peal of thunder. A storm raged in the heavens, bolts of lightning intertwining and crashing together like the whips of an angry deity. Rain streamed down through the cracks in the black mass above, soaking the broken and beaten village below with more than just blood. The air was heavy, but held an edge sharp as a sword, whirling and winding about as if alive. Its howling stood one's hair on end, and sang of battle and triumph long lusted after. Figures littered the streets, some old, some young, and many with a look of terror on their faces. But they all had one thing in common._

_ They were all dead._

_ One man stood amongst the bodies, his bald head glistening not from sweat, but rain. The rain had long since washed him of any small sign of effort. His eyes, red as hellfire and sharper than obsidian, stared obstinately at the screaming sky, as if daring the storm to challenge his power, so he could add yet another conquest's verse to his singing heart. He stood, staring, his chest barren, his loins clothed in naught but heavy blue cloth, and his feet rooted in the soil of his deeds. Pale skin shone like alabaster, and the strange, chain-like tattoos encircling his arms did little to chain in the raw power exuding from his person. Everything about this man spoke of the very power and motive to not kill, but obliterate an entire village, and think only of the next encounter._

_ From behind the rubble of what used to be her home, a young girl watched the figure revel in his sin. Her blazing red hair was matted and dulled with mud and rainwater, and her clothes were mere scraps of fabric, a testament to her struggle for survival. However, one feature of hers stood fast against the destruction before her. Blue eyes that burned with an outer aura of fear and hate and overwhelming sadness stayed fixed on the man who had done this terrible crime, and yet stood as if he were overlooking the world from atop a mountain. They burned and burned, and the man took it in and paid it no heed._

_ Then, with a sudden shift, the wind picked up, an instantaneous tempest crying with the fury of gods, not with the brittle anger and loneliness of an orphaned girl. The gleaming red gaze of the man widened in shock, and snapped down to one of the collapsed houses lining the road. His gaze was met with blue eyes that shone with frozen steel and crackling plasma, of raging fires and storms dwarfing the one above. And with winds, enraged and infused with a battle-lust he thought all his own. Winds seeking to tear him off his throne and cast him off his mountain into the chasm below, with nary a second thought. Red eyes reflected in blue and the man's smirk held against the bared teeth of the girl whose life he engulfed in rain._

**"Your name?"** _the man's voice, a deep and earthy baritone, issued forth from pale lips, his words not lost, but carried in the screeching storm above._

**"Maki. Aikawa Maki. Yours?"** _the young girl's high, childish soprano backed by the screaming winds flooded his ears, making his eyes alight with glee and anticipation._

**"I am known as Eternal. I look to the day you meet me at the end."** _His words forming a pact known only to those like them, the man nodded once, rain falling in rivulets down his nose and chin, only to drop to the ground as he faded out, leaving only a broken village and a promise of a challenge as reminders to his deed. The girl, also having nodded, stood strong until the light left her eyes, and she collapsed in sobs on the ground, her last legs of strength finally falling to grief._

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AN: Hopefully this wasn't _too_ flowery, but I wanted to set the dramatic background up like so, and I think it turned out pretty well. Look forward to the first chapter soon!


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